It's A Tough Life
by SophF95
Summary: After her care home closed unexpectedly, new girl Isla moves in to Elm Tree House. However, why is it that she limps everywhere and doesn't talk about her past? Will she open up to anyone? Or will her feisty temper get her into trouble? Isla Shaw is my own character.
1. Chapter 1

It's A Tough Life

**Chapter 1:**

"You'll have to get out some time you know." Mike said gently as he turned his head round to peer into the back of his car. He had a phone call early this morning to say that he was getting a new girl after her old care home was closed down unexpectedly. However, after an hour of trying to get her into the car, she reluctantly got in to go to Elm Tree House, but now she was refusing to get out.

"Come on, you didn't even want to get in the car before and now I can't you out!" Mike said funnily but as Mike looked at her, he could see a tear trickle slowly down her face before she quickly wiped it away with a swift movement of her hand.

"Hey, no need to cry. What's up?" Mike asked softly as he looked at the girl in the back of the car. She looked up at him before briefly diverting her eyes down to her leg and back up again. Mike glanced down at her leg confusingly as he had no idea what she trying to tell him.

"You don't know do you?" She asked as she stared down at her leg. She thought he would have at least read her file before picking her up since he is now in charge of her.

"Know what?" Mike asked looking puzzled. The truth is he hadn't had the opportunity to read her file as it is in the process of being transferred from her old care home and wouldn't arrive until this afternoon.

"It doesn't matter..." She said as she opened the car door and began to slowly climb out, careful not to knock anything. She didn't want to be the one to tell him.

"Hang on a second!" Mike shouted as he quickly got out of the car and followed her into the house. As Mike closed the door behind himself he saw her standing in the hallway looking round, taking in the details of her new home. Mike watched as she made her way over to the piano, but as she got closer she stopped suddenly. She looked down at her leg, sighed, and made her way back towards Mike. As she did this Mike couldn't help but notice that she had a limp and wondered if she had something wrong with her leg. He was just about to ask when a mass of voices headed towards them.

"Are you the new girl?" asked a boy with short black hair. He was carrying a notepad and was wearing a black polo shirt with brown trousers with a black belt. She didn't feel like speaking and was about to turn to look at Mike when he began to speak.

"OK everyone. This is Isla and she is going to be staying with us as her care home closed down so please make her feel welcome." Mike explained before giving Isla an encouraging smile.

"Tee will show you to your room as it is next to her room." Mike said as Tee made her way towards Isla, smiling friendly. "I'll come and find you later for a talk." and with that Mike left Tee and Isla alone in the hall as the others made their way back to the lounge. The due began to climb the stairs together but Tee couldn't help notice that Isla had to put both feet on every step rather than walking up them normally, but she thought it was due to the amount of things she was carrying.

"So, what was your old home like?" Tee asked happily as she skipped down the landing towards Isla's room.

"I don't want to talk about it..." Isla said quietly as she bowed her head to the floor. Tee wasn't sure if she should ask any more questions in case Isla got annoyed with her but she was curious to know why she was limping.

"Err...I hope you don't mind me asking but is your leg ok?" Tee asked quietly as she didn't want to upset Isla. Tee glanced at Isla and could see she had stopped walking and was staring down at the floor.

"Isla?" Tee asked worryingly but Isla lifted her bags back up from the floor and continued walking, a smile across her face.

"Yeah, I pulled a muscle in it this morning when I was carrying my things down the stairs but it'll be ok in a few days." Isla said calmly hoping that it would be the end of that conversation. The girls walked round a corner before Tee stopped outside a dark brown wooden door.

"So, this is your new room!" Tee announced as she opened the door and followed Isla inside. Isla looked around the room at the lilac walls and cream coloured floor. She dumped her things down onto the bed, not realising that one of the bags had split from the impact and carried on making her way over to the window where Tee was stood. It looked over a large green field which Isla presumed to be the back garden, lined with trees in the distance that you couldn't see beyond.

"I...I don't mean to be rude or anything...but what kind of accent do you have?" Tee asked quietly as she didn't want to sound stupid but she knew Isla wasn't from around these parts originally.

"Scottish. I'm originally from a small town near Edinburgh." Isla said as she continued to stare out of the window.

"We used to have a boy here, Toby, who was Scottish but he didn't sound like you." Tee explained and Isla simply shrugged her shoulders in reply. She couldn't be bothered explaining about the fact that different parts of Scotland have different accents, just like England has.

Isla watched as Tee began to make her way out of the room as she looked like she was going to leave to let Isla settle in. However, when she turned to say bye she gasped in horror at what she could see on the bed. Isla, looking panicked, stared at her bed and could see that her spare prosthetic leg was sticking out of the split bag. Isla rushed to the door, grabbing Tee by her t shirt and slamming the door shut. She pushed Tee against the door and held her there as the tears began to rise in her eyes.

"If you dare tell anyone about this," Isla said in a serious voice as she pointed to her leg, "then you'll be sorry."

Tee's eyes were brimming with tears as Isla loosened her grip on her, giving her the opportunity to dash from the room. All Isla cared about was no one finding out about her leg.


	2. Chapter 2

It's A Tough Life

**Chapter 2:**

Isla sat down gently on her bed shoving her spare leg back into the bag. She couldn't believe what had just happened. As she looked around the room she didn't think it was too bad even though it could do with painting as lilac wasn't really her kind of colour, but it was ok for now. Isla rummaged around in her bag and pulled out a photograph that she rested on her knee. There were four people in the picture including Isla. A tall man with jet black hair and bright blue eyes stood beaming, one arm wrapped around the waist of a woman with mousy brown hair smiling happily, the other being pulled down by two girls with brown hair, big blue eyes and faces full of freckles. Isla grinned as she looked at all their happy faces, remembering the day that the picture was taken. It was taken when Isla was 12 years old. Just over two years ago. They were just about to go on holiday to the Lake District, the packed suitcases in the background along with the family canoe that her Dad had insisted on buying the previous year. Tears began to rise in Isla's eyes as she thought back to that day when suddenly her bedroom door burst open.

"Hello, I'm Carmen. I thought you might like some help un..." Carmen started but she was cut short. Isla quickly hid the photo under the pillow on the bed and shot up onto her feet.

"Who said you could come in here?" Isla shouted causing Carmen to jump. Carmen backed away slightly causing her to bump into the set of drawers behind Isla's bedroom door.

"I'm...I'm sorry. I just thought you might need some help unpacking that's all." Carmen said shakily. She really wasn't expecting Isla to behave like this.

"Yeah, well, you thought wrong." Isla said harshly before turning and walking to the window. She was fully aware of Carmen looking at her, probably dying to know about her limp and what's in her bags as well as every detail she can get about her life. Isla had met her kind before and knew fine well not to tell them a thing otherwise the whole house would know.

"Right, well I'll erm...I'll leave you to it." Carmen said trying to compose herself before leaving the room. She knew that people found it hard moving into a new home but she didn't think that there was any need to be so rude about it. After all, she was only trying to help.

Isla listened as she heard the door creak slowly shut before the click of it closing. She picked up a book from the top of the bag nearest her and threw it across the room. She watched as it bounced off the wall and landed on the floor with a dull thud. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want people being nosey in her business, coming in her room, questioning her. She just wanted to be left alone.

Carmen stood outside of Isla's room not knowing what to do. She didn't know whether to just ignore what had happened and put it down to being in an unfamiliar place or whether she should go and tell Mike. As she stood thinking she heard a loud thud coming from Isla's room as though she had thrown something and within seconds Tee's bedroom door came flying open.

"Tee! What's wrong?" Carmen asked worryingly as Tee's eyes were all red and blotchy as though she had been crying. Tee looked at Carmen and could feel her eyes brimming with tears again so Carmen directed her back into her room so that they could talk.

"Have you just been to see Isla?" Tee asked shakily as she had heard Isla shouting at someone through the wall but she wasn't sure who it was.

"Yeah, I only wanted to see if she needed any help unpacking and she practically bit my head off." Carmen explained, and then she remembered that Tee had shown Isla to her room just before.

"Did she shout at you?" Carmen asked and she could see Tee begin to fiddle with her hands. Carmen could tell that something bad had happened between Tee and Isla and she needed to find out what.

"Yeah..." Tee said quietly. She didn't know whether to tell Carmen about Isla pushing her. Tee was sure that she didn't mean as she must be feeling pretty scared and strange being a place like this. But she didn't want it to happen to anyone else either.

"...and she pushed me." Tee whispered so that only Carmen could hear. She was scared that Isla would be able to hear her through the wall and would come barging in to her room. Tee could feel Carmen looking at her with an expression of shock plastered across her face. Tee knew that she would make her tell Mike and Gina.

"Tee, you have to tell Mike and Gina. She can't get away with it!" Carmen exclaimed as Tee tried to quieten her down. "Please Tee, you need to tell someone."

"She didn't mean it." Tee said but she could tell that Carmen knew she was lying. Isla had meant it to scare her and that is what it has done.

"Come on, were going to see Mike." Carmen said as she sprung up off the bed, grabbing Tee's arm and pulled her out the door. This needed to be sorted.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: **

Making their way down the stairs, Tee and Carmen glanced nervously at each other as they braced themselves to tell Mike what had happened. They walked across the hall to the office where they knocked on the door, waiting patiently for it to open. However, as they stood there waiting they were beginning to regret their idea. After all, Isla was only new and bound to be scared of being in a new house where she doesn't know anyone. Suddenly, Gina opened the door making both girls jump, but especially Tee and Gina could instantly tell that something wasn't right.

"Are you alright girls?" Gina asked concerningly in her Jamaican accent. She could see that Tee was on the brink of tears and she kept glancing nervously over her shoulder.

"Come on in." Gina said as she pulled the door open and invited the two girls into the office. Mike was having a heated conversation on the phone so Tee and Carmen stood awkwardly as Gina made her way back over to her seat and was just about to ask them what was wrong when Mike slammed the phone down into its holder.

"Everything alright?" Gina asked as she could tell that the conversation Mike had just had didn't go to plan.

"No, looks like they've 'misplaced' Isla's notes in the home somewhere so I'm going over there to help them search for them." Mike explained as he grabbed his car keys from inside his draw and grabbed his coat from the back of his chair before leaving the room.

"Sorry about that." Gina said as she invited the girls to pull up two chairs. "So, what's the matter?" she asked gently as she had no idea what this could be about.

"It's...it's Isla." Carmen started, hoping that Tee would follow suit if she started the conversation off. "I went to see if she needed any help unpacking and she shouted at me which I'm not that bothered about as it happens all the time here but after it happened I went to see Tee as I know she showed Isla to her room and when I walked in she was..." Carmen explained but she couldn't get the words out as she cared about Tee and didn't like seeing her upset and she knew as soon as she mentioned what had happened that Tee would start again, but Carmen had to tell someone. "...she was crying because Isla had pushed her."

Gina looked at Tee who was staring down at the floor, not looking anyone in the eye. Gina knew fine well that Tee wouldn't make something like this up and something had to be done.

"Tee, what do you mean by 'pushed'?" Gina asked as she wanted to get the facts straight before she went to talk to Isla. She could see Tee trying to pull herself together and Carmen trying to encourage her to tell.

"She grabbed me by my top and pushed me against the door and shouted at me." Tee said quietly. She felt guilty for telling Gina and scared of what Isla might do when Gina goes to talk to her about it as she doesn't want anything else to happen.

"What did she say when she shouted at you?" Gina asked as she thought this might help her to understand the situation a bit better but Tee refused to tell her saying that it isn't important and to ask Isla.

"Right, ok, I'll go and have a word with her." Gina said as she got up to let Tee and Carmen out, giving Tee an encouraging squeeze of the shoulder as she left. "Thanks for letting me know girls."

As they made their way back towards the staircase Carmen grabbed Tee by the arm and pulled her to one side. She wanted to know why she didn't tell Gina what Isla had shouted at her.

"I don't want to talk about it." Tee said quickly as she began to move towards the staircase to avoid any more questions but Carmen asked her again.

"Carmen, just leave it. I don't want to talk about it!" Tee shouted before running upstairs leaving a worried Carmen at the bottom not knowing what to do. She had never seen Tee act like this before and didn't know whether to go after her or to go and tell Johnny. After all, he was her brother and should know if something is going on with her. But then Carmen thought that he might go and talk to Isla, demanding to know what had happened so Carmen decided to just leave it for now and wait until Gina had spoke to Isla to see what she says. She didn't want to make things worse than they already are.


End file.
